interesting sub story
Yesterday I was subbing in a 2nd grade class for the second consecutive day. Overall, the class was Off. The. Wall. Never in my life have I seen kids act like that! Complete disregard for most directions until I tell them that they will walk laps during recess. But that is not the interesting part...
The teacher told me to have them sit on the floor and watch Reading Rainbow. Most did, but a few wandered around the room including a cliquey girl who can't sit still and another girl who seems to have ADHD. At the end of the show, one of the cliquey girls takes a look at ADHD girl ( I know this reference is horrible so lets call the cliquey girls C1 and C2, and ADHD simply A since names aren't appropriate here either!) C1 says that A stole her doll's clothes and put them on HER stuffed toy! Every C was glaring at A. I had seen this shirt yesterday & knew that A had just randomly picked it up. I said A didn't mean to and just have A give it back to C1. But that wasn't the end....
C2 said her watch was stolen also! I had also seen this the previous day randomly sitting out on a desk. I spoke to both Cs about the importance of holding onto one's own belongings. I had a feeling that A had also picked up this, but would never come forward for fear of being antagonized by the Cs. Even so, I gave the whole class time to look through their things and come forward with it if they accidently picked it up, and they wouldn't get in trouble. Knowing full well, though, that socially the Cs would torture whoever came forward.
I finally pulled A to the side where her backpack was and privately asked if she picked it up. I said if she did we would figure out a way that C2 would never know what happened. I told her girls had been mean to me before, too & that it really hurt me to see the way the girls acted towards her. She gave me the watch.
I put it in my pocket and continued to teach the class for another hour or so until Media time. One boy just about caught on that I had the watch. While the class was at specials I slipped it back into C2's backpack.
The class came back & C2 went immediately to her backpack, I didn't even tell her to! Luckily, I put it in a place where she hadn't looked, but it was in there previously. I could see her mind turn completely around onto itself through her eyes. I told her to never think something about someone until she knows. She just felt lucky and happy for the rest of the day!
I love it how kids that age are still young enough to somehow "trick". I also like to turn cliques on their heads and make people look at each other differently. I wish that could be the goal of a teacher. It seems like a moral idea that needs to be corrected.
I don't think what A did was right, but she didn't mean anything malicious, and the Cs would have dealt with her in an extremely malicious way.
I saved the teasing, and hopefully... maybe changed another girl's attitude.
The teacher told me to have them sit on the floor and watch Reading Rainbow. Most did, but a few wandered around the room including a cliquey girl who can't sit still and another girl who seems to have ADHD. At the end of the show, one of the cliquey girls takes a look at ADHD girl ( I know this reference is horrible so lets call the cliquey girls C1 and C2, and ADHD simply A since names aren't appropriate here either!) C1 says that A stole her doll's clothes and put them on HER stuffed toy! Every C was glaring at A. I had seen this shirt yesterday & knew that A had just randomly picked it up. I said A didn't mean to and just have A give it back to C1. But that wasn't the end....
C2 said her watch was stolen also! I had also seen this the previous day randomly sitting out on a desk. I spoke to both Cs about the importance of holding onto one's own belongings. I had a feeling that A had also picked up this, but would never come forward for fear of being antagonized by the Cs. Even so, I gave the whole class time to look through their things and come forward with it if they accidently picked it up, and they wouldn't get in trouble. Knowing full well, though, that socially the Cs would torture whoever came forward.
I finally pulled A to the side where her backpack was and privately asked if she picked it up. I said if she did we would figure out a way that C2 would never know what happened. I told her girls had been mean to me before, too & that it really hurt me to see the way the girls acted towards her. She gave me the watch.
I put it in my pocket and continued to teach the class for another hour or so until Media time. One boy just about caught on that I had the watch. While the class was at specials I slipped it back into C2's backpack.
The class came back & C2 went immediately to her backpack, I didn't even tell her to! Luckily, I put it in a place where she hadn't looked, but it was in there previously. I could see her mind turn completely around onto itself through her eyes. I told her to never think something about someone until she knows. She just felt lucky and happy for the rest of the day!
I love it how kids that age are still young enough to somehow "trick". I also like to turn cliques on their heads and make people look at each other differently. I wish that could be the goal of a teacher. It seems like a moral idea that needs to be corrected.
I don't think what A did was right, but she didn't mean anything malicious, and the Cs would have dealt with her in an extremely malicious way.
I saved the teasing, and hopefully... maybe changed another girl's attitude.